【正文】 anted adventure. I loved travelling, so I decided to join a voluntary organisation and was sent to Ecuador to carry out land surveys. The project came to an end after five years and when I returned to the UK in 1998, I started planning Pedal Power. Where I lived in Ecuador was a very rural area. My neighbour had the only bicycle in the village, whereas everyone else walked everywhere. My neighbour39。t understand why. Then I realised having a bike meant he could get where he wanted to go without much trouble. Other local carpenters could only accept jobs in a threekilometre radius, so no matter how skilled they were, they could never do as many jobs as my neighbour. At Pedal Power, we collect secondhand bikes in the UK and send them to some of the poorest regions in the world. When we distribute bikes overseas we don39。d like to, but long term that doesn39。s received bicycles from Pedal Power is Rivas. It was the first place I sent a full container of bicycles to. Most people there now own a bicycle. The local economy has developed so much, you wouldn39。ve ever been there. But Pedal Power still needs your help. You may have read about some of our recent problems in the British media. In August 2000, we simply ran out of money. We had containers of bikes ready to send, but no money to pay the bills. It was a terrible situation. We managed to ensure the bikes went out on time, but the other problems carried on for several months. Fortunately in October 2001 we won an Enterprise Award which helped us enormously. We invested fifteen of the seventyfivethousandpound prize money to help secure our future. Winning the award helped raise our profile, and the money enabled us to pay all our shipping costs, which represent our greatest expense. Pedal Power changes lives when someone gets a bicycle from us, they see a 14% increase in their ine. We39。ve provided 46,000 people with bikes. But we39。t matter what condition it39。t repair it, we39。ll be able to suggest activities you could organise to bring in funds for us. People do all kinds of things including, of course, s d bike rides. Also, we39。ve been to developing regions on their travels. We hope that by talking on radio programmes like this, we will be able to raise public awareness, which will lead to government organisations also giving us regular financial support, something that we really need. If you39。d just like to say, Cristina and Ibrahim, that I really enjoyed watching your video about student life last week, and I could see that the rest of the group did too. You did really well, and I hope that you got a lot out of it. I39。ve operated one like that? C: Yes, it is. T: Well the results were very good! Anything else? C: I also enjoyed visiting one of the British students we filmed. I39。t usually have much to do with the rest of the college.T: Yes, good. Do you think you39。ve invited three of them to have dinner with me next week. T: Great! If you haven39。ll love trying Arab dishes. And of course, it39。t heard before. T: What about you Ibrahim? What was the most useful for your English? I: It was listening to the British students, because they don39。m glad it helped. Well, we39。d learnt from the project? Was it useful in other ways? C: Yes, well firstly, I learned how to use a video camera. And also, I think I really learned a lot about working together with other people. I39。t agree with you.T: Yes, that is a very useful experience, I know. TUTOR: What about you, Ibrahim? I: Well, I think I learnt a lot about how important editing is. When you39。s going to be interesting, but in fact we cut around half of it in the end, and then it was much better. T: Good. Well, one last thing I39。d do differently? C: We didn39。t decide on dates when we39。t have a lot of time, and we tried to do too much, to make a lone film. Next time I would make a shorter one and try to get quality better. T: Well, that39。ll have an opportunity to put into practice what you39。m going to talk to you about that remarkable continent Antarctica remote, hostile and at present uninhabited on a permanent basis. For early explorers, it was the ultimate survival contest。 while for the modern tourist, it39。s fresh water and 90% of its ice, but with very low snowfall, most of the continent technically falls unbelievably into the category of desert! Huge icebergs break off the continent each year, while in winter half the surrounding ocean freezes over, which means its size almost doubles.Research and exploration has been going on in Antarctica for more than two hundred years, and has involved scientists from many different countries, who work together on research stations. Here science and technical support have been integrated in a very costeffective way our Antarctic research programme has several summersonly stations and two allyearround ones。s living and working space, a kitchen with a huge food store, a small hospital and a wellequipped gym to ensure everyone keeps fit in their spare time. The station generates its own electricity and municates with the outside world using a satellite link..Our station Zero One had some special features. It wasn39。t always been so fortable. Snow buildups caused enormous problems for four previous stations on the same site, which were buried and finally crushed by the weight. Fortunately noone was hurt, but these buildings became a huge challenge to architects who finally came up with a remarkable solution the buildings are placed onplatforms which can be raised above the changing snow level on legs which are extendable.Food is one of the most important aspects of survival in a polar climate. People living there need to obtain a lot more energy from their food, both to keep warm and to undertake heavy physical work. Maybe you know that an adult in the UK will probably need about 1,700 kilocalories a day on average。t available to earlier polar explorers, whose diet was monly insufficient for their hea